SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SOCIETIES. 
“The Temperature of the Vapour Arising from Boiling Saline Solutions,’ 
By George Harker, D.Sc. It is well known that the solution of a salt in water 
raises the boiling point of the solvent; this is illustrated by the fact that sea- 
water has a higher boiling point than pure water. The temperature at which 
the vapour of the solvent leaves the boiling solution has, however, been the 
subject of considerable dispute. Some scientists have maintained that the tem- 
perature under normal pressure never rises above 100°C., others that it leaves 
the solution at the temperature of a boiling solution itself. In the only recorded - 
instances where the vapour has been obtained over 100°C. it has been surrounded 
by a jacket filled, either with the boiling solution, or with some vapour at a 
temperature very close to that of the boiling solution; so that considerable 
doubt has existed as to whether superheating gf the vapour has not taken place. 
In the present paper it is shown that the temperature of the vapour can he 
obtained well over 100°C. by boiling the solution in a hypsometer, either by 
a bunsen flame or by admission of steam from water boiled in a separate vessel. 
With a solution of calcium chloride boiling normally at 115°C. a temperature of 
106°C. was obtained for the vapour at a point 10 inches above the boiling 
solution. It is claimed that under the conditions of the experiment superheating 
could not take place. ¥ 
Notes on Two Acacias. By J. H. Maiden, F.R.S. 
(1) This is a spreading shrub which may, however, assume an erect habit 
and become 10 feet high. Its affinities are shown in that it was formerly known 
as Acacia doratoxylon var. angustifolia. From that species, however, it differs 
in its habit, smaller size, in the short sessile flower spikes which are axillary 
and not racemose, and in the hairy ovary. It seems to be chiefly found in the 
New England granite country from Howell, near Tingha, as far north as 
Stanthorpe and the Toowoomba district, in Queensland. (2) The second wattle 
is submitted as a form or race of Acacia pycnantha Benth., or a new species. 
In its ordinary morphological characters it very closely resembles the species 
named, but-there are important differences in the seedlings, the percentage of 
tannin in the bark, and other characters which lead the author to propose it as 
a new species. The type comes. from Jerrahomberra, in the Federal Territory, 
near Queanbeyan. 
Notes on a Native Teatree, Leptospermum flavescens var. grandiflorum. 
Mr. KE. Cheel read a short paper on a native teatree (Leptospermwm 
flavescens var. grandiflorum), which he had been studying for several years in 
the deep creeks and river beds from Penrith extending to the Blue Mountains 
on the western line and Douglas Park to Braidwood on the southern line and 
tablelands. From observations in the field and close botanical researches, it 
was suggested that the plants were quite different from any other species, and 
the oil obtained from the leaves by Mr. A. R. Penfold tends to confirm this 
view. 
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